Quote:
From New York Times:
MURCIA, Spain — The boom in low-cost air travel has done more than democratize air travel and offer new vistas to working-class people: It has also opened a new dimension to the global warming crisis.
At a time when airlines are already the fastest-growing source of climate-warming carbon-dioxide emissions — increasing nearly 5 percent a year according to a report last week from the European Environment Agency — the new low-cost industry is pumping a huge amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
"Low-cost carriers are growing at 9 percent a year, and from an environmental point of view that is a problem," said Christian Brand, a researcher at Oxford University who specializes in the mathematical modeling of transportation emissions. "Their cheap prices encourage more travel."
The growth in passengers on European low-cost airlines has been phenomenal, almost doubling to 120 million per year in 2007 from about 60 million per year in 2005, according to the European Low Fares Airline Association.
Flights on many of these budget airlines start around 50 euros with tax, or about $78, but can be as low as 10 euros, about $16, if booked far enough in advance.
A couple flying round trip from Leeds, England, to Murcia would generate about 1,400,000 grams of carbon dioxide, according to Brand's calculations. A traditional driving vacation to the Lake District in central England would generate fewer than 20,000 grams, or one-seventieth of that amount, he said.
And those numbers are multiplied by the staggering increase in the number of travelers at places such as San Javier airport in Murcia: the number of passengers increased to 848,037 in 2004 from 88,608 in 1995, according to Aena, the main operator of Spanish airports.
For many, the economics of flying cheap are proving more compelling than the environmental consequences. With prices for gas and hotels at all-time highs in Britain and Germany, it is, somewhat bizarrely, more economical to fly to Spain, even for a weekend, than to take a traditional driving vacation near home.
"With bed and breakfasts running 80 pounds to 110 pounds a night, it is cheaper to fly to Spain for the weekend than to drive to the Lake District, so there is incredible latent demand," Brand said.
A European Environment Agency report issued this year said that between 1990 and 2005, the last full year from which data were available, total carbon-dioxide emissions from aviation in the European Union grew by 73 percent.
"This could threaten the ability of the EU to meet increasingly ambitious emission reduction targets," the report's authors said.
The European Low Fares Airline Association argues that low-cost airlines are a "green" alternative compared with conventional airlines, because low-cost airlines tend to have newer, more efficient fleets and their flights run nearly full, creating lower average emissions per passenger.
But that does not take into account the huge growth in flying that they have created.
From New York Times:
MURCIA, Spain — The boom in low-cost air travel has done more than democratize air travel and offer new vistas to working-class people: It has also opened a new dimension to the global warming crisis.
At a time when airlines are already the fastest-growing source of climate-warming carbon-dioxide emissions — increasing nearly 5 percent a year according to a report last week from the European Environment Agency — the new low-cost industry is pumping a huge amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
"Low-cost carriers are growing at 9 percent a year, and from an environmental point of view that is a problem," said Christian Brand, a researcher at Oxford University who specializes in the mathematical modeling of transportation emissions. "Their cheap prices encourage more travel."
The growth in passengers on European low-cost airlines has been phenomenal, almost doubling to 120 million per year in 2007 from about 60 million per year in 2005, according to the European Low Fares Airline Association.
Flights on many of these budget airlines start around 50 euros with tax, or about $78, but can be as low as 10 euros, about $16, if booked far enough in advance.
A couple flying round trip from Leeds, England, to Murcia would generate about 1,400,000 grams of carbon dioxide, according to Brand's calculations. A traditional driving vacation to the Lake District in central England would generate fewer than 20,000 grams, or one-seventieth of that amount, he said.
And those numbers are multiplied by the staggering increase in the number of travelers at places such as San Javier airport in Murcia: the number of passengers increased to 848,037 in 2004 from 88,608 in 1995, according to Aena, the main operator of Spanish airports.
For many, the economics of flying cheap are proving more compelling than the environmental consequences. With prices for gas and hotels at all-time highs in Britain and Germany, it is, somewhat bizarrely, more economical to fly to Spain, even for a weekend, than to take a traditional driving vacation near home.
"With bed and breakfasts running 80 pounds to 110 pounds a night, it is cheaper to fly to Spain for the weekend than to drive to the Lake District, so there is incredible latent demand," Brand said.
A European Environment Agency report issued this year said that between 1990 and 2005, the last full year from which data were available, total carbon-dioxide emissions from aviation in the European Union grew by 73 percent.
"This could threaten the ability of the EU to meet increasingly ambitious emission reduction targets," the report's authors said.
The European Low Fares Airline Association argues that low-cost airlines are a "green" alternative compared with conventional airlines, because low-cost airlines tend to have newer, more efficient fleets and their flights run nearly full, creating lower average emissions per passenger.
But that does not take into account the huge growth in flying that they have created.